Atherton Tablelands

Saturday, 28 July 2012

The weeks are disappearing fast – we have been in Cairns for four weeks now.

Late Thursday afternoon, Barry and Denise returned from Hobart (four funerals in four days was probably not the best reason for returning home!) and were back on site before 6.00 pm. Carlene and I had organised a barbecue and salad for an evening meal, which gave us a chance to catch up on all the news.

Friday morning, after coffee at our caravan (Barry had been hanging out for one of my coffees ever since he left for Hobart), we decided to finally brave the Telstra shop and replace my mobile telephone. We met a nice young man named Lawrence, who quickly sorted out my replacement phone; it took nearly an hour to complete the paperwork. Of course, the stress really commenced after lunch when I discovered the numbers from my old phone hadn’t been transferred across! After working out how to get the numbers into the new phone, another couple of hours was spent deleting the double-upped numbers, putting in ring tones, etc. After all that, no one has rung me.

We received some worrying news late in the afternoon. Redlynch (where we are staying) is noted for its equestrian areas, with a large number of horses in the surrounding paddocks. Directly across from the entrance to the caravan park is a large centre where a two day event was held the weekend before last, with horses coming from other regions. Unfortunately, one of the visiting horses from Mackay was later found to be suffering from the Hendra virus and two of the local horses died during Friday. The area was immediately quarantined and we were unsure if our movements would be restricted (fortunately not). However, all the horse areas have now been cordoned off and there are official looking people wandering around. Let’s hope they have managed to contain the spread of this dreadful disease.

Today, with the weather forecast continuing good, we made up our minds to visit the Yungaburra Markets on the Atherton Tablelands. This was a great market, with lots of interesting stalls – and people! We had a wander around the village as well, where we spotted a great “Thought For The Day!” We had a short detour on the way to have another look at the Curtain Fig Tree – it has definitely grown since the first time we saw it.

We continued on to Lake Barrine but missed the 11.30 am boat cruise/tour by ten minutes and the next one wasn’t until 1.30 pm, which was a bit too long to wait. We had a lovely lunch in the teahouse overlooking the lake, instead. Then it was on to Millaa Millaa Falls – so picturesque and not many people about, which was a bonus. Our return to Cairns was via the old mining township of Herberton.